What’s in a Name? (Part 3 of 3)

April 10, 2026·25 min·2 clips

Alistair Begg explains how Jesus continues to make the Father's name known even after he is gone.

1. Truth For Life presents the third and final part of Alistair Begg's exposition of Jesus' high priestly prayer in John 17, centred on verse 26. 2. Alistair Begg serves as the teaching pastor of Truth For Life; he is working through John 17 in a multi-part series, with this episode completing the series. 3. The episode addresses the interpretive question of how Jesus could promise to continue making the Father's name known if he was departing — the tension the sermon sets out to resolve. 4. Begg structures his answer in three stages: first, in the immediate events following John 17 (crucifixion, burial, etc.); second, in the period between the resurrection and the ascension; and third, through the Holy Spirit post-ascension. 5. Begg uses the Emmaus road account in Luke 24 to illustrate stage two, noting the irony that two disciples explain the events of Jerusalem to the unrecognised Jesus, who then teaches them the entire Old Testament concerning himself. 6. The Emmaus encounter is characterised by Begg as 'irony at its very best' and 'the great Bible study,' describing Jesus beginning with Moses and all the prophets to interpret the things concerning himself. 7. For the post-ascension stage, Begg cites John 15:26 and John 16:12-15, where Jesus promises a Helper — the Holy Spirit — who will guide the disciples into all truth and take what belongs to Jesus and declare it to them. 8. Begg illustrates the Spirit's work through Peter's sermon in Acts, where Peter applies Psalm 118's 'stone the builders rejected' to Jesus and declares there is salvation in no one else. 9. The second major section of the sermon focuses on John 17:26's final clause: 'the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.' 10. Begg draws a sharp distinction: this is God's love given to believers, not believers' love given to God; the security of Christian faith does not rest on fluctuating human affection toward God. 11. He cites Psalm 118 — 'the steadfast love of the Lord never ceases' — and applies God's love serially to four realities: God keeps believers, sanctifies them, unites them, and brings them to glory, each grounded in the same love. 12. Begg states twice with emphasis that 'this love is unknown apart from Christ,' and immediately translates this into a direct question: 'Are you in Christ?' 13. He explicitly sets aside church attendance, baptism, and membership classes as insufficient tests, reducing the question to whether the listener has trusted Jesus and is 'in Christ.' 14. Romans 5 is cited to ground the mechanism: 'God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.' 15. A personal memory from Begg's time at age 23 in Edinburgh's Westerhales housing scheme illustrates the communal effect of this love: a nearly blind pastor named Hardy taught young people from gang and drug backgrounds to sing 'Love is the flag flown high from the castle of my heart.' 16. Begg uses the image of the royal standard at Buckingham Palace — present when the monarch is in residence — to explain how God's love becomes externally visible in a community: 'Love flies because of the presence of the king.' 17. The sermon closes with the argument that only this love — shed abroad by the Holy Spirit — can produce the kind of visible, cross-social community that makes outside observers say 'I can't explain why they love one another.' 18. Begg's preaching style is expository and conversational, with moments of deliberate humour (the Emmaus irony), extended repetition for rhetorical emphasis, and first-person pastoral disclosure. 19. This episode will resonate with listeners committed to Reformed evangelical theology, interested in John 17's Trinitarian structure, or drawn to Begg's exposition of divine love as assurance rather than aspiration. 20. Listeners seeking application-heavy practical content or topical sermons without extended biblical exegesis will likely find the pacing slow.

As heard by us

A steady close to John 17 that turns doctrine into assurance.

Begg ends John 17 by returning to a simple claim: Jesus asks that the Father’s love rest on his followers. The sermon keeps circling the same ground, and that restraint helps.

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Why you'd press play

Press play for a careful John 17 sermon on how the Father's love is known in Christ and becomes your assurance.

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